Indonesia residents run outside as shallow quake hits
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The tremor hit at 6.55am at a depth of 10km, with the epicentre offshore near North Sulawesi province.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM USGS
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JAKARTA – A shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Feb 26, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, forcing residents to flee outside but with no damage or casualties reported.
The tremor hit at 6.55am at a depth of 10km, with the epicentre offshore near North Sulawesi province, according to the USGS.
Indonesia’s meteorological agency gave a lower magnitude of 6 and said there was no potential for a tsunami.
People in North Sulawesi described the panic when the quake struck.
“I had just woken up when I realised it was an earthquake. It was strong, swaying from side to side,” Ms Gita Waloni, a 25-year-old guest at a hotel in North Minahasa district in the province, told AFP.
“Objects inside my room rattled. I decided to get out. I was so scared there would be an aftershock while I was inside the lift. All other guests had also fled.”
The vast archipelago nation experiences frequent earthquakes owing to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide, which stretches from Japan through South-east Asia and across the Pacific basin.
A 6.2-magnitude quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021
In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu city on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.
And in 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia. AFP
